NHS endorses Nintendo Wii Fit video game

The Nintendo Wii Fit Plus has become the first computer game to be endorsed by
the Department of Health.

Wii games and exercise as good as the real thing, scientists findPhoto: CLARA MOLDEN

By Harry Wallop, Consumer Affairs Editor

11:00PM GMT 25 Oct 2009

The backing is a victory for the Japanese company and the rest of the video games industry, which has been frequently attacked by the Government for encouraging a sedentary lifestyle, and accused of playing a role in the obesity epidemic.

However, the endorsement will raise eyebrows among critics of the Department for Health, as Nintendo has agreed to use its own money to promote the NHS Change4Life programme.

The Daily Telegraph understands that the Nintendo Wii Fit Plus, which goes on sale this Friday, has won permission to use the NHS’s Change4Life logo in its advertising on television and in shops. From next year, it is possible that the logo will be used on the product itself, an unprecedented partnership between a video game and the Government.

Guy Cocker, of Gamespot, an industry website, said: “It’s a great victory for the computer games industry.

“And to give credit to Nintendo, I think most people who buy Wii Fit do so because they actually want to improve their health.”

A spokesman for the Department for Health said it was not endorsing a video game, but rather an exercise.

“Active video games, where kids need to jump up and down or dance about as part of the game, are a great way to get kids moving,” he said.

The Change4Life programme is a campaign by the NHS to persuade people, especially children, to take more exercise and eat healthily.

One of its early adverts featured two characters playing video games, suggesting this was something children should avoid. It prompted an angry response from Sony Nintendo and other console manufacturers, who lobbied the Government not to demonise the industry.

Wii Fit Plus is the latest video game to be launched by Nintendo for its Wii games console, which has won over sceptics to gaming, especially women.

Wii Fit Plus is an updated version of the Wii Fit game, which was released 18 months ago and allows players to undertake exercises with an on-screen guide. The exercises vary from difficult yoga positions to skiing and hula-hooping.

The new Wii Fit Plus will enable players to tailor an exercise programme to their own preferences and to target areas of their body.

“If you are worried about your bingo wings or your flabby bum, the game will give you specific exercises to target those areas,” said Rob Saunders, the British spokesman for Nintendo.

Nintendo is not the first company that the Department of Health has agreed links with. It has previously done deals with Cadbury and Pepsi, both of which agreed to commit funds to promote the Change4Life campaign.

Nintendo’s Wii console has also been used by Seacroft Hospital in Leeds to encourage recuperating patients to take exercise.

The Wii Fit game has already sold 2.9 million copies in Britain, with the Wii console itself selling six million units. This equates to nearly one machine in every fourth household in the country.